On 24 November 2007, the Australian Body Politic had a Heart/Brain transplant. So far, it seems the patient is making a good recovery, but we shall monitor progress. As of 31 December 2007, the patient has been moved out of "Intensive Care".
There was a period of uncertainty, under Kevin Rudd, and then Julia Gillard. On 14 September 2010 Julia Gillard was sworn in as Prime Minister, by the Governor General.

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Arms sales "build relationships"

This came from crikey.com.au today

Meanwhile in the real world ... number 452 in an occasional series.

U.S. government-to-government arms sales are growing fast and will likely exceed the bullish estimate of $40 billion for 2009, the Pentagon's top arms sales official said on Wednesday at the Paris Air Show.

Vice Admiral Jeffrey Wieringa, head of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, told Reuters it was unclear if arms sales would keep rising, but noted that was possible since several largeweapons competitions were underway, and many countries had aging equipment to replace.

Arms sales were at a "pretty unprecedented level" after averaging $8 billion to $13 billion per year in the early 2000s, Wieringa said in an interview.

Sales in the first half reached $27 billion, some 60 percent of the year's expected total, making it likely the actual 2009 total would top $40 billion, he said.

Wieringa said the Obama administration was committed to building international partnerships, and arms sales were an important instrument of that policy.

"We sell stuff to build relationships," he said.

Boom times for irony too.

Indeed - it is almost as good as that old "Hippy" era Anti-War slogan: